Download TRADITIONS AND CULTURES (TRAD) 101:

ANTHROPOLOGY 212:
ETHNOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVES ON
SMALL-SCALE SOCIETIES
Fall 2008
MWF 1:30-2:20, King 341

Amy Margaris
Office: King 302
Office Hours: MWF 2:30-3:30 or by appointment
Email: [email protected]
Course Description:
In this course we will examine land use systems, gender roles, nutritional patterns, and
many other facets of small-scale societies, or groups who live primarily by hunting,
gathering, and fishing. Such societies have been a frequent subject of study and
inspiration for archaeologists interested in our evolutionary origins. We will explore this
intellectual tradition and consider its validity, but spend equal time examining the lives of
contemporary small-scale societies in their own right, and the strategies they employ as
they are drawn into the world economic market.
The class is divided into a series of roughly week-long topical modules. As the course
progresses, however, you will get a feel for how truly integrated the modules are: the
connections that exist between subsistence and social networks; between technology and
economy; and that link mobility, nutrition, and female fertility, for instance.
The backbone of the class is the Kelly text, which will serve as a rigorous, textbook-like
reference. (Please read each assigned chapter as essential background, but do not become
mired in the occasional formulae and other technicalia.) We will also learn about
particular cultural traditions through two book-length ethnographies plus an additional,
individual research project, and will read influential articles in the discipline to delve
more deeply into particular theoretical topics. Finally, you will carry out ongoing,
independent research on a particular society of your choice, and your expertise will
enliven and enrich our frequent classroom discussions.
Note: You will be asked to consume a good deal of written material in this class. I have
found that the actual digestion process is aided by a combination of quiet reflection,
discussion, and both formal and informal writing. Each of these will play an important
role in this course.
Required Texts:
Kelly, Robert L. 1995. The Foraging Spectrum. Smithsonian Institution Press,
Washington. (Also posted on Blackboard.)
Tonkinson, Robert. 1991. The Mardu Aborigines: Living the Dream in Australia’s
Desert, 2nd edition. Case Studies in Cultural Anthropology. Holt, Rinehart and
Winston, Inc., Fort Worth.
Brody, Hugh. 1981. Maps & Dreams: Indians and the British Columbia Frontier.
Waveland Press, Inc., Prospect Heights, Illinois.
Additional Required Readings are posted on Blackboard (see end of syllabus).
Course Requirements:
Throughout the semester you will pursue independent library research on one small-scale
group of your choice. There must be sufficient published ethnographic data to allow you
complete two mid-term papers and a final course paper on your group.
Mid-Term Essay 1: Mobility and Work (1250-1500 words; ~ 5-6 pp.)
Mid-Term Essay 2: Health and Demography (1250-1500 words; ~ 5-6 pp.)
Final Course Paper: A final paper (2000-2500 words; ~ 8-10 pp.) is due on Thursday,
December 18 by 9 p.m. Pick a topic relevant to the course that you would be excited to
write about, and be sure to check in with me about your topic ideas, as I can help you
narrow to an appropriate scope.
Your essays and paper must show good scholarship, clear argumentation, and thoughtful
incorporation of the ethnographic and theoretical knowledge that you have accumulated
throughout the semester.
Essays and papers must include proper in-text citations and end references. The contexts
in which citations and references are required may occasionally seem ambiguous, but the
consequences of plagiarism (intentional or otherwise) are grave, so please feel free to
contact me with even a small question. The reference style guide I frequently work from,
issued by the Society for American Archaeology, can be found at:
http://www.saa.org/publications/Styleguide/styframe.html
Weekly Memos: Most Fridays (or Wednesday if there is no Friday class) you will be
asked to hand in a brief (125-250 word; ~1/2 -1 page) memo reflecting critically on the
week’s readings. You must complete 8 end-of-week memos during the semester; the
choice of which weeks is yours.
These communiqués must be typed and will be assessed according to a checkmark
system (see below). You can use your ideas as launching points for Friday discussions,
and to help think through particular ideas that interest you, and which you may like to
include in your final paper. I try to give ample feedback on both technical writing and the
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concepts you tackle in these assignments. A more complete description of the memo
system is posted on our course Blackboard site.
Memos will be graded according to the following scale (rubric adapted from W. Haugh)
Check Plus: Insightful and draws connections; excellent grasp of subject matter; explains
concepts clearly; provides relevant details and examples
Check: Mostly descriptive; good grasp of subject matter; provides relevant details and
examples
Check Minus: Limited grasp of subject matter or evidence of having completed readings
Attendance & Participation: Discussions will form an essential component of classroom
learning. Their value to you will depend wholly on your presence, preparedness, and
participation. Most weeks one of you will be in charge of leading our group discussion,
and this too will count toward your participation score. Be sure to see me several days
before your discussion date with some draft questions already in hand; I will give you
feedback and help guide you through my expectations.
Grade Breakdown:
Mid-term Essay 1
Mid-term Essay 2
Final Course Paper
Weekly Memos (8 @ 2.5% ea.)
Attendance & Participation
20%
20%
30%
20%
10%
Important Due Dates:
Weekly Memos (8 total) generally due the last day of each week
W 10/15
Essay 1: Mobility & Work
W 12/3
Essay 2: Health and Demography
Th 12/18 9 p.m.
Final Paper (drop off at my office)
The Honor Code:
At the end of each graded assignment, including weekly memos, you are required to write
and sign the Oberlin honor pledge: “I have adhered to the Honor Code in this
assignment”. For more information about the Honor System please see:
www.oberlin.edu/students.links-life/rules-regs.html.
Students with Disabilities should see me at the start of the semester so that I can provide
any necessary accommodations. Please bring documentation from Student Academic
Services that will help explain your needs. If you suspect you have a disability but have
not been diagnosed, please contact:
Jane Boomer [email protected]
Coordinator of Services/ Students with Disabilities
Student Academic Services
Peters Hall G27, x55588
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Rules for Written Assignments:
All assignments, unless otherwise noted, should be typed and double-spaced with regular
1 inch margins and must adhere to the stated length requirements. Attempts to artificially
lengthen (or shorten) written assignments by manipulating document spacing or font size
are lame and will be instantly detected.
Extensions will be granted only under extraordinary circumstances. Late essays will be
graded down 1/3 of 1 letter grade every 24 hours after the due date. No essays will be
accepted more than 1 week late. Because memos are designed to spur conversation on
the day on which they are due, late memos will not be accepted.
Schedule of Lectures, Discussions, and Assignments
DATE
TOPIC
W 9/3
F 9/5
Introduction
M 9/8
W 9/10
F 9/12
M 9/15
W 9/17
F 9/19
M 9/22
W 9/24
F 9/26
M 9/29
W 10/1
F 10/3
M 10/6
W10/8
F 10/10
M 10/13
W 10/15
F 10/17
M 10/27
W 10/29
F 10/31
ASSIGNMENT DUE DATES
The Food Quest
MUDD ORIENTATION with Reference
Librarian Megan Mitchell (meet in Mudd, back
of first floor)
Moving for a Living
Film: “Baka: People of the Forest” VCR-2525
(Con library)
Discussion: Silberbauer / Tonkinson (through
Ch. 5)__________________
Sharing, Ownership, and Social Networks
Discussion: Tonkinson (esp. Chpts. 6 & 7)
___________________
Being Small-Scale and Sedentary
Film & Discussion: “A Matter of Respect”
Discussion: The Evolution of Social Inequality
___________________________
Men and Women at Work
Read over syllabus and bring questions;
Murdoch (1968); Service (1979); Kelly
Ch. 1 (skim)
Lee (1968); Nadasdy (2007); Kelly
Chpts. 2 & 3 (read for major points)
Week 1 memo due (WED.)
begin Tonkinson
continue Tonkinson (though Ch. 5); Kelly
Ch. 4
Silberbauer (1994); Week 2 memo due
finish Tonkinson; Lee (2007); Kelly Ch.
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Week 3 memo due
Kelly Ch. 8; continue ethnographic
research
Hayden (1994); optional: Colson (1979);
Nussbaum (1999) Week 4 memo due
Kelly Ch. 7; Estioko-Griffin and Griffin
(1981); optional: Bodenhorn (1990)
Discussion: Gender Roles _________________ Hurtado et al. (1985); Week 5 memo due
Fertility and Demography
Kelly Ch. 6 (skim); read Blurton Jones
(1987) for major points only; Angier
(1997); Small 2007; ESSAY 1 DUE
(Wed.)
Discussion ________________________
Week 6 memo due
ENJOY YOUR FALL BREAK
Nutrition and Health
Film (portions): “Nanook of the North” (1922)
(VCR-6411/ DVD-88)
Discussion: Food and Culture ______________
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Speth (1990); Stini (1981); Begin Brody
Week 7 memo due
Schedule of Lectures, Discussions, and Assignments Cont.
M 11/3
Foragers and Their Neighbors
W 11/5
Discussion: Interdependence/ Brody (through
Ch. 4)_______________
No Class: Margaris at History of Science Society Conference
Foragers, evolution, and prehistory
Continue Brody (Chpts. 5-8); Kelly Ch.
9; Schrire (1980) OR Parkington (1984)
Film & Discussion: “Stories from Stone: The
Archaeology of Horseshoe Cove”
Discussion: Foragers and Archaeological
Week 9 memo due
Inquiry _____________________________
Revisionist Perspectives
Continue Brody (Chpts. 9-12); Headland
(1997); Lee (1992);
Film (portions): "N!ai, the Story of a !Kung
Woman" DVD-1865 (60 min.)
Discussion: The Myth of Pristine Foragers/
Draper and Cashdan (1988); Week 10
Brody (Chpts. 9-12)
memo due
_________________________________
Special Focus on Technological Adaptations in
Yost and Kelley (1983)
the Arctic: Old and New Meanings
HAPPY THANKSGIVING
F 11/7
M 11/10
W11/12
F 11/14
M 11/17
W 11/19
F 11/21
M 11/24
W11/26
F 11/28
M 12/1
W 12/3
F 12/5
M 12/8
W12/10
F 12/12
Bailey et al. (1989); Spielman (1986);
Layton (2001)
Week 8 memo due (WED.)
Living in Both Worlds
Finish Brody (Chpts. 13-16); Condon et
al. (1995); Fogel-Chance (1993);
optional: Freeman (1988); ESSAY 2
DUE (Wed.)
Week 11 memo due
Discussion: Brody (Chpts. 1316)______________________
Indigenous Rights and Anthropologists
McCrummen 2007; Watt-Cloutier Bio &
Speech; current news article(s) TBA
Final Wrap-Up
Special Topic memo 12 due
Final Paper Due in my office on Thursday, Dec. 18, by 9 pm
Readings Posted on Blackboard (http://bb.oberlin.edu):
Bailey, R., G. Head, M. Jenike, B. Owen, R. Rechtman, and E. Zechenter. 1989. Hunting and
Gathering in the Tropical Rainforest: Is it Possible? American Anthropologist 91:59-82.
Blurton Jones, N. 1987. Bushman Birth Spacing: Direct Tests of Some Simple Predictions.
Ethology and Sociobiology 8:183-203.
Bodenhorn, B. 1990. “I’m Not the Great Hunter, My Wife Is”: Iñupiat and Anthropological
Models of Gender. Études/ Inuit Studies 14(1-2):55-74.
Colson, E. 1979. In Good Years and Bad: Food Strategies of Self-Reliant Societies. Journal of
Anthropological Research 35(1):18-29.
Condon, R., P. Collings and G. Wenzel. 1995. The Best Part of Life: Subsistence Hunting,
Ethnicity, and Economic Adaptation Among Young Adult Inuit Males. Arctic 48(1):31-46.
Draper, P. and E. Cashdan. 1988. Technological Change and Child Behavior Among the !Kung.
Ethnology 27(4):339-365.
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Estioko-Griffin, A. and P. B. Griffin. 1981. Woman the Hunter: The Agta. In Woman the
Gatherer, edited by F. Dahlberg, pp. 121-151. Yale University Press, New Haven.
Fogel-Chance, N. 1993. Living in Both Worlds: “Modernity” and “Tradition” Among North
Slope Iñupiaq Women in Anchorage. Arctic Anthropology 30(1):94-108.
Freeman, M. M. R. 1988. Tradition and Change: Problems and Persistence in the Inuit Diet. In
Coping with Uncertainty in Food Supply, edited by I. de Garine and G. A. Harrison, pp. 150169. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Hawkes, K., J. O’Connell and N. Blurton Jones. 1997. Hadza Women’s Time Allocation,
Offspring Provisioning, and the Evolution of Long Post-Menopausal Lifespans. Current
Anthropology 38(4):551-578.
Hayden, B. 1994. Competition, Labor and Complex Hunter-Gatherers. In Key Issues in HunterGatherer Research, edited by E. Burch and L. Ellanna, pp. 223-239. Berg, Oxford.
Headland, T. 1997. Revisionism in Ecological Anthropology. Current Anthropology 38(4):605630. (w/ comments)
Hurtado, M. K., K. Hawkes, and H. Kaplan. 1985. Female Subsistence Strategies Among Ache
Hunter-Gatherers of Eastern Paraguay. Human Ecology 13(1):1-28.
Kelly, Robert L. 1995. The Foraging Spectrum. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington.
Kinloch, D., H. Kuhnlein and D. C. G. Muir. 1992. Inuit Foods and Diet: A Preliminary
Assessment of Benefits and Risks. The Science of the Total Environment 122:247-278.
Layton, R. 2001. Hunter-Gatherers, Their Neighbors and the Nation State. In Hunter-Gatherers:
An Interdisciplinary Perspective, edited by C. Panter-Brick, R. Layton and P. Rowly-Conwy,
pp. 292-321. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Lee, R. 2007. Eating Christmas in the Kalahari. In Annual Editions, Anthropology 07/08, edited
by Elvio Angeloni, pp. 19-22. McGraw Hill, Dubuque, IA.
Lee, R. 1992. Art, Science, or Politics? The Current Crisis in Hunter-Gatherer Studies.
American Anthropologist 94:31-55.
Lee, R. 1968. What Hunters do for a Living, or, How to Make Out on Scarce Resources. In Man
the Hunter, edited by R. Lee and I. DeVore, pp. 30-48. Aldine Press, New York.
McCrummen, Stephanie. 2007. 50,000 Years of Resilience May Not Save Tribe: Tanzania
Safari Deal Lets Arab Royalty Use Lands. Electronic document.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/09/AR2007060901465.html
Accessed 6/25/07
Murdoch, G. P. 1968. The Current Status of the World’s Hunting and Gathering Peoples. In
Man the Hunter, edited by R. Lee and I. DeVore, pp. 3-12. Aldine, New York.
Nadasdy, Paul. 2007. The Gift in the Animal: The Ontology of Hunting and Human-Animal
Sociality. American Ethnologist 43(1):25-43.
Parkington, J. 1984. Soaqua and Bushman: Hunters and Robbers. In Past and Present in
Hunter-Gatherer Studies, edited by C. Schrire, pp. 151-174. Academic Press, New York.
Roscoe, P. 1990. The Bow and the Spreadnet: On the Ecological Origins of Hunting
Technology. American Anthropologist 92:691-701.
Schrire, C. 1980. An Inquiry into the Evolutionary Status and Apparent Identity of San HunterGatherers. Evolutionary Ecology 8:9-32.
Service, E. 1979. The Hunters, 2nd edition. Prentiss-Hall, New York. Introduction (pp. 1-6) and
Appendix (pp. 76-98).
Silberbauer, G. 1994. A Sense of Place. In Key Issues in Hunter-Gatherer Research, edited by
E. Burch and L. Ellanna, pp. 119-146. Berg, Oxford.
Small, Meredith F. 2007. A Woman’s Curse? In Annual Editions, Anthropology 07/08, edited by
Elvio Angeloni, pp. 125-128. McGraw Hill, Dubuque, IA.
Speth, J. D. 1990. Seasonality, Resource Stress, and Food Sharing in So-Called “Egalitarian”
Foraging Societies. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 9:148-188.
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Spielmann, K. 1989. A Review: Dietary Restrictions on Hunter-Gatherer Women and the
Implications for Fertility and Infant Mortality. Human Ecology 17:321-345.
Spielmann, K. 1986. Interdependence Among Egalitarian Societies. Journal of Anthropological
Archaeology 5:279-312.
Stini, W. A. 1981. Body Composition and Nutrient Reserves in Evolutionary Perspective. In
Food, Nutrition and Evolution: Food as an Environmental Factor in the Genesis of Human
Variability, edited by D. N. Walchert and N. Kretchmer, pp. 107-120. Masson, New York.
Wilkie, D. and B. Curran 1991. Why do Mbuti Hunters Use Nets? Ungulate Hunting Efficiency
of Archers and Net Hunters in the Ituri Rain Forest. American Anthropologist 93:680-689.
Yost, J. and P. Kelley. 1983. Shotguns, Blowguns, and Spears: The Analysis of Technological
Efficiency. In Adaptive Responses of Native Amazonians, edited by R. Hames and W.
Vickers, pp. 189-224. Academic Press, New York.
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